Life is harsh when you kick start the human spirit.
Humankind has spent a long time worshipping gods - since the modern Cro-magnon appeared and kicked the Neanderthal out of existence. One of the main difference between us and our ancestors is our imagination and therefore adaptability. No other ancestor started language, cave paintings or complex cultures.
But our imagination is also our greatest enemy. Where we lacked knowledge we invented ‘things’ to fill the gaps. So in shock and awe about nature we invented spirits, ghosts and gods to explain thunder, death and a lot of other annoying things.
Me Artist! Me Paint! Me Talk to Horsy Spirit! Me Shaman! Bow to me!
As our mental capabilities expanded so did our cultures, language and religions. If you look at the history of religions you also see how their concepts and liturgy evolved in complexity. But the human intellect is an amazing thing - and once our basic civilization was established smarter heads started to questions the gods themselves (like Epicurus).
They already concluded that nature is everything and that the gods are nothing. Even things like the atom were discussed long before they had the means to research it’s existence. Human imagination can work far beyond your cultural and technological limits.
But religion also proved to be a great tool over power - and rulers always like to have a divine backing. The people can ruled much easier if their leaders are in favor with the gods - not matter how dubious those connections are. And almost all cultures have creations myths that make THEM the chosen ones. For example the Japanese track themselves back to the sun goddess Amaterasu. I personally like the imagination and complexity of Hinduism. You hardly find a more colorful universe of gods.
The Enemies of my Religion are also our Enemies. Let’s crush them, because we are the Chosen ones …
As religion is an attempt to explain the universe (and therefore a search for the ultimate truth) it leads to science. Almost all early European scientist were dedicated Christians, who were VERY curious how god managed to run the whole show. Too bad that they discovered that the old stories of all religions weren’t true: the earth was neither the center of the universe nor was it formed out of a slain giants body.
But parallel to the myths of religion (and fairy tales) we humans discovered spirituality, our own psyche, the secrets of our minds and a new love for the beauty of the universe. Almost all major religions have their smaller departments dedicated to more serious spiritual paths - which are often more demanding and more abstract then the normal liturgy for the common follower. A truely dedicated lifestyle of a Yogi or Jesuit priest is NOT everyone - it’s very demanding. And people are unwilling to really give everything for their gods. Self preservation is usually stronger then religion.
Are you a true follower of your God(s)?! Spiritual nakedness and Yogi tea are not for everybody you know …?!
Life - the last twenty thousand years - was quite harsh to humans. Simply getting enough food was tough enough. Life was always very unfair and scary. Religion also helped to cope with fear and survival - tight rules and rituals helped tribes to survive and unite under a common banner/purpose. Religion also helped us to ‘organize’ power and hierarchies.
Religion helped us to survive and was one of the first components of our cultures. But culture will continue to evolve - even the evolution of ideas is pretty unstoppable.
Many people say that science is the true enemy of the gods or any religion. But no - our cultural evolution is the true ‘enemy’ (if you can speak in such terms anyway).
Cultural evolution brings not only full stomachs, but a separation of powers, the rule of the law, a more mutual sharing of technologies, education, medical supplies and science.
In the early 1500s European Christianity was becoming more and more aware of those ‘other’ religions and world views - simply because travel and trade was coming back to roman standards. In a monotheistic religion/society it’s much more shocking to hear that there is an alternative to just the one ‘true’ god. Polytheistic societies never had that problem to such an extend - they could cope with (just) another god …
The same Country and same God - three different groups fighting to the Death. A bit odd isn’t it?!
Luxuries like human rights, democracy, free markets and the separation of powers didn’t appear until the late 1700s in Europe. Instead of just fighting for survival, we could dedicate (again) more resources to social evolution and exploration, because we finally had the understanding how to help ourselves and survive.
Also we started to rule ourselves less by divine appointment, but by social and political ideas. The concept of the national identity was supplanting religious identities - especially in Europe after those devastating and fruitless religious wars.
So in some way Martin Luther’s idea split the Christian atom (much more then the catholic (western) and orthodox (eastern) separation before). This big bang lead to the Age of Enlightenment. But it was paid with a lot of blood and burned bodies.
He challenged the Power of the Church and tried to put believe back into Christianity.
Looking back in our history one could say we have fought many wars between conflicting cultural ideas: from tribes uniting under one religion, to great religions fighting each other and social ideas fighting religions to establish a new order within a bigger cultural context.
Overall our cultures evolved to ever increasing social structures: from tribes to kingdoms, from kingdoms to nation states, from nation states to continental entities (like the EU).
But old ideas never completely die: we still have tribalism as well as religion amongst us. The wars of the 1990’s in the Balkans and current conflicts between Muslims and Christians show how deep these old ideas are still embedded in our cultural DNA.
The Founding Fathers of America - one of the greatest moments in History. They put the Nation before God, the Citizen before their Rulers.
The idea of the nation state or even atheism are pretty new - hardly a couple of centuries old - compared to tens of thousands of years of tribalism and religions.
I say no more gods please - they had several thousand years to enlighten us, put an end to suffering, spread universal love and understanding. Gods and religions have failed to do so - although they had more then enough time and cost us a huge amount of life’s.
We are currently struggling to implement new concepts into our cultural evolution: a truly global society, universal human rights, total religious freedom (or betters say to protect ‘true’ believers from each other) and a free flow of information. No surprise people are scared and more blood is shed. But overall our current democratic, socialist and capitalist ‘ideas’ have feed and clothed more people then ever - safety and education are still on the rise although we still experience huge humanitarian catastrophes (like in Darfur or Africa in general).
Since democracy, technology and science have started to spread - we as a race have prospered more then ever. Gods didn’t build schools and hospitals, fed and clothed the poor, educated and explored the human potential - and this potential also includes our spirituality and imagination.
*repost from 2005*
